If the needs for training for leadership are recognized as urgent, we need to ask whether the training institutes are doing the right things and question the effectiveness of training institutions.

This book calls for a serious and critical reflection on the way in which we conceptualize training for leadership in the second decade of the 21st century.

The different chapters reflect the ideas, theories and practices being dominant today. The thread of the contents show that something is amiss in such training. In general it does not have the expected effects and it often does not address the needs of recipients. The implication is that training for leadership in the future has to be redefined taking into account the specific contingencies, problems and complexities, leaders – especially in developing countries – have to deal with.

Leadership cannot be seen as an isolated factor. The different chapters in this book argue that training for effective leadership and good governance practices need to be combined. All ask for leadership that is less hierarchical and more interactive, collaborative, and takes also stakeholders outside the public sector seriously.

This has serious implications for the question how leadership training is organized ; the different chapters of this volume address this issue from a theoretical as well as an empirical point of view : developments in theorizing about leadership, styles of public sector leadership, leadership in turbulent times and the importance of contingences on leadership in changing times.